Category Archives: Events

World Elephant Day 2013

World Elephant Day 2013 logo

Today, elephants in Africa and Asia are faced with the threats of escalating poaching, habitat loss and various other conflicts with humans. World Elephant Day was launched on August 12th, 2012, to bring attention to the plight of these iconic animals and will be observed for the second time this year.

World Elephant Day 2013

The African Elephant is one of our favourite species and every encounter with them is a moment to treasure. Shown here is a young bull crossing a road in the Kruger National Park, just south of Skukuza Rest Camp.

If you’d like to see some more of very special South African elephants, have a look here:

Isilo of Tembe

Kruger’s Big Tuskers

Masbambela

World Oceans Day

Every year, people and organisations around the globe celebrate World Oceans Day on the 8th of June. It is a day to contemplate the life sustaining role of the earth’s oceans for us humans and the life forms with which we share the “blue planet”, and we’re encouraged to commit to ways to limit our own individual negative impacts on this vital resource.

This photograph shows a small portion of the Tsitsikamma coast in the Garden Route National Park, South Africa’s oldest marine protected area.

World Oceans Day

de Wets Wild is one year old!

Today we celebrate de Wets Wild’s first birthday!

Thank you to each and every one of our friends and followers; those who’ve read, liked and commented on our posts, for your encouragement and support over the last year!

de Wet Family

Birthday!

World Water Day

Every year, World Water Day is held on the 22nd of March, to bring attention to the importance of preserving the earth’s freshwater resources.

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A mountain stream carving its way through the rocks of the Blyde River Canyon

Milestone for de Wets Wild

The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa – for he has so much to look forward to.”
Richard Mullin.

Giraffe at sunrise, near Lower Sabie in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Giraffe at sunrise, near Lower Sabie in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

This is our 100th post on de Wets Wild!

Our deepest gratitude goes to everyone that has contributed to us reaching this milestone by reading, following, liking, commenting and sharing our posts. We appreciate the friendships we’ve made and the inspiration and encouragement you’ve given us through this medium immensely.

There’s still so much beauty and splendour to share from South Africa’s wild places, and as we look forward to doing just that through de Wets Wild for a very long time to come we’d be thrilled to have your continued support.

Our sincere thanks, again!

Dries, Marilize & Joubert – the wild de Wets

Kiss

Our silly contribution for the Valentine’s week photo challenge

Kiss

More thanks from de Wets Wild

Elizabeth Turner (elleturner4), the talented blogger responsible for Dot knows!– a delightful mix of beautiful photos and intelligently humorous writing that you’d surely enjoy – have done us the great honour of nominating de Wets Wild for two awards recently!

Thank you, again, Elle (everyone seems to be calling you Elle in the blogosphere – do you prefer that to Liz?) for thinking of us – it is always nice to receive a pat on the back and more so from someone as talented and experienced as you!

versatileblogger

First off, Elle nominated us for “The Versatile Blogger Award” and, in accepting the award there’s a couple of courtesies we need to adhere to:

Acknowledging and linking back to the blogger that nominated us – Done!

Next give seven random pieces of information about ourselves, so here goes:

1)     Marilize is a terrific cook!

2)     Dries enjoys a bit of “plane-spotting” every now and then

3)     Joubert has a little rabbit called “Snoesie” as a pet

4)     Snoesie rules the back yard

5)     Marilize is a passionate reader of fiction

6)     Dries enjoys reading non-fiction only

7)     Joubert, at three years of age is quite multilingual – Afrikaans is our home language, but he is quite accomplished in English and understands a fair bit of isiZulu.

And then the Grand Finale; nominating fifteen other bloggers that we consider worthy of this award, based on the following guidelines: “The quality of the writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page. Or, of course, the quality of the photographs and the level of love displayed in the taking of them. Honour those bloggers who bring something special to your life whether every day or only now and then.”

mjculverphotography

Nature on the Edge

Notes from Africa

about.the.bush

Derek Evans Photography

Zeebra Designs & Destinations

The Serenity Space

The Unwitting Traveller

23 Thorns

Through My Lens

Francine in Retirement

Cee’s Photography

human Triumphant

Our second award nomination from Elle is for the “Liebster Award” – in accepting, we have to mention and link back to our nominator (please refer to the opening paragraph), answer eleven quick questions about ourselves, and nominate eight favourite fellow bloggers for the award:

What is your favourite song?

Amazed by Lonestar

What was the last thing you ate?

The contents of the lunchbox Marilize packed for me…

Do you prefer to read from an eReader or a paper copy?

Paper!

List your five favourite movies?

Notting Hill

Robin Hood, Men in Tights

The Lion King

Miss Congeniality

The Hangover

What writing project are you working on now?

We’re working on a series on the nature destinations around Pretoria, another on the camps of the Kruger Park, and one on the big tuskers of Kruger – all to be featured soon on de Wets Wild.

Are you allergic to anything?

Not that we know of!

Do you have any real life stories that start with, “This one time at camp…?”

Of course there are many, given that we escape to nature every chance we get – the hyena incident at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is a recent example.

How do you handle telemarketers?

Politely decline their offer the first time but then if they don’t want to relent I put my phone down next to the radio or television so that they too can experience the joy of listening to something you are not the least interested in…

When was the last time you wrote someone a letter by hand and mailed it?

1997

Besides writing, do you have any other artsy talents?

Dries and Joubert enjoy drawing, and Marilize is, as mentioned before, an excellent cook

What is your favourite joke?

Not a joke, but a funny saying: If at first you don’t succeed, then maybe sky-diving isn’t for you!

In turn we’d like to nominate the following eight blogs for the Liebster Award:

mjculverphotography

Nature on the Edge

Notes from Africa

about.the.bush

Derek Evans Photography

Zeebra Designs & Destinations

The Serenity Space

The Unwitting Traveller

We hope that our nominees accept these small tokens of the high regard we have for the work they publish!

World Wetlands Day 2013

Annually, the 2nd of February is celebrated as World Wetlands Day to highlight the important role wetlands play in improving water quality, reducing flood damage, controlling erosion and storing fresh water. In recognition of the day we are posting some more images from one of South Africa’s most important wetland areas – the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

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Great to start 2013 with a blogging award nomination!

inspiring-blogger-award

Our friends Marks and Joey, fabulous photographers and bloggers at mjculverphotography, have done us the great honour of nominating de Wets Wild for the “Very Inpiring Blogger Award” – thank you very much again Joey and Marks!

The rules for the award:

* link back to the person who nominated you

* post the award image on your page

* tell seven random facts about yourself

* nominate fifteen other blogs.

Seven facts about us:

1) Joubert is named after my (Dries) late father – is there any better way to honour someone who has been a profound positive force in your life? Miss you Dad.

2) Marilize is a qualified travel professional, and she operates a successful business making reservations for the public in a variety of wild places across South Africa.

3) I (Dries) work for one of South Africa’s premier conservation agencies – a childhood dream come true!

4) I (Dries) am colour-blind.

5) We’ve made our home in Pretoria, but we are open to any opportunities to move permanently to any of South Africa’s wild places.

6) Our home language is Afrikaans.

7) We are proudly South African!

In turn we’d like to nominate the following blogs for inspiring us!

We’re still very new to blogging and already we’ve come across so many inspirational blogs that it is very, very difficult to narrow it down to just 15 – please don’t feel unappreciated if we’ve not mentioned you!

A Word In Your Ear

Canadian Hiking Photography

Cee’s Photography

Francine In Retirement

humanTriumphant

ilargia64 Reflections

Lagottocattleya

life portOfolio

Lu’s Pix

Mirth and Motivation

mjculverphotography

My Wall

retireediary

The Serenity Space

The Unwitting Traveller

Happy New Year!

de Wets Wild would like to wish all our followers and readers everything of the best for 2013!

Golden Gate sunrise